- “The Road Not Taken” is a widely quoted poem about making decisions. It is typically referred to in a positive way to congratulate a person for doing things his or hew own way. Taking the “road less traveled” is something we all want in life, right? Now, how does it change your view of the poem to know that Frost actually wrote it to mock his friend’s indecisiveness when making decisions? With this in mind, how does it alter your impression of the use of the word “sigh” near the end of the poem?
- What tragic elements, if any, are in “Babylon Revisited”? Does Charles Wales have a fatal flaw? Does he achieve self-recognition or profound insight at the end of the story? Or does he merely lapse into self-pity? Also, discuss how the sequence of losses in Wales’s life forms a structural plan for the story. What is the turning point in the action of the story?
- What does the short play “Trifles” have to say about the predicament of women? How is this similar to or different from Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper”?
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